Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 7

Only a little progress so far this week, but after my long weeks of creative inactivity while we were repairing the house, it feels as if I have made major progress.  I am working on the clapboards for the house.  It is not just a matter of gluing a few craft sticks to a box.  It is really a fairly involved process.

I am using craft sticks that I purchased at Walmart.  They are described as premium craft sticks.  They are very nice craft sticks. The sticks are sanded smooth and coated with what I am guessing is clear polyurethane.  For most projects, they would be ideal.  For this project, they need a little work.  Since I am trying to make a dilapidated house with aged and peeling paint, a smooth surface is not going to look right.  The wood needs to be distressed. 

I began by cutting off the rounded ends.  That was not exactly easy.  The sticks are thick enough that cutting them off with a box cutter type knife took a number of strokes.  A coping saw was too large.  I could have used a cutting wheel on the Dremel tool, but I did not want to drag everything outside as it is already beastly hot and humid.  I suppose I could have done it in the studio, but I have just cleaned the place from top to bottom and I'm not ready to cover it in fine saw dust.  I used a heavy duty pair of kitchen shears.  It took an uncomfortable amount of pressure, but I justified it by telling myself that I was improving my grip.

My original plan was to save these rounded pieces to use as scalloped shingles for the roof.  At this point I am thinking about changing that to something else as many of the small rounded pieces cracked in half when they were chopped off.  The pieces are very small.  I would be cutting up a whole lot of craft sticks just to get the tiny ends if I wanted to do the roof that way.  Yes, a Plan B is definitely in order.

Anyway, once I chopped off the ends of the craft sticks, I had a plank; the plank will be the clapboards.  I did not worry overmuch about the planks being even.  The clapboards will have to be staggered so that you won't have lines running down the house.  At this point the process for distressing the wood begins.  As I mentioned above, the craft sticks are very nice.  I need the wood to look old.  My first task was to sand the wooden sticks with 60 grit sand paper to rough them up.  That is actually where I am in the process at the moment; about a third of the way through the sanding.  I expect to finish the sanding this week.  I'll be blogging about the next step in the distressing process on Sunday.  By the way, if you would rather not make the planks yourself, you can purchase planks in scale to various model train scale sizes from hobby shops and internet sites that offer model railroad gear.  I don't know how much they cost as I did not make the trek across the city to the hobby shops.  I did not search the internet because I suspected that the shipping and handling costs would be high on such a small item.  I expect that it would be more costly than craft sticks though.

Getting back into the studio has been an interesting process.  After I completed the Shaman Staff piece, I had hit a patch of burn out.  I was having trouble coming up with ideas.  When that happens, the best thing to do is take a break for a bit, then work in a new medium for a while even if you don't feel like working on anything.  Eventually one of two things will happen: you might find you like the new medium and be inspired with new creativity, or you will be glad to get back to doing what you previously enjoyed with renewed interest.  However, if you have a choice, don't choose to rebuild half your house for your creative endeavor.  Although I was frustrated that I could not get into my studio to work, I am now actually somewhat glad now that I had a project just started in the works when things went south with the house.  At least I had something to come back to when I was able to return to the studio.  It gave me a starting point other than staring at a blank wall trying to figure out what I wanted to work on.  Since I had been in a bit of a creative blank spot before the plumbing disaster that befell our house, I feared that it might still be there once I was back in the studio.  When creativity has been your constant companion for many years, it is rather scary when suddenly you can't come up with anything you want to work on.  However, with a project just started sitting on the table, it gave me a starting point.  I can feel my creative energy returning.  If I could describe the feeling, it would be as if a large
piece of iron machinery such as an engine had been shut down and allowed to grow cold.  When started up again, the engine slowly starts and warms up before it come up to full speed.  Finally, the moment comes when the engine is warm and you can throw it into full speed.  That is what it feels like when you come out of creative burn out.  The ideas are flowing again and everything feels as it should.  I'm glad I am back to being able to work again.  Now I have more ideas and plans than I have time for.  I'm glad that things are getting back to normal.